I smoked from the age of 23 (as a full timer....you know...) and was diagnosed with diabetes at 27. So all my diabetic life I've been a smoker, and now I no longer smoke, I'm having to relearn how to deal with my diabetes, how to recognise the swing into hypoglycaemia, because it feels COMPLETELY different now.

It is crucial that you recognize the risks associated with smoking as a diabetic. The two risk factors are a very dangerous combination. Read the post Smoking and Circulation, you will see how many of the risk factors faced by diabetes are also conditions exacerbated by smoking. To minimize your risks with your diabetes stay on top of your blood sugar through the diet and medications regime worked out with your doctor and to eliminate the compounding risks of smoking just always remember to never take another puff!
Joel

Last edited by Joel on February 26th, 2009, 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

During all my failed quits I ate as I did while I smoked. Consequently, now I think a majority of "the quitting jitters" I had back in the failing days were really blood sugar issues. This time, armed with fresh juice and eating small but several times a day, I got through those early weeks as easily as I think you can get through them. The information about caffeine was also paramount for me.

Educate yourself & then NTAP! We're looking forward to you joining us here at Freedom... and your life awaits!

From above:
When you abruptly quit smoking, the body is in kind of a state of loss, not knowing how to work normally since it has not worked normally in such a long time.

Usually by the third day, though, your body will readjust and release sugar as it is needed. Without eating any more your body will just figure out how to regulate blood sugar more efficiently.

You may find though that you do have to change dietary patterns to one that is more normal for you. Normal is not what it was as a smoker, but more what it was before you took up smoking with aging thrown in.

Some people go until evening without eating while they are smokers. If they try the same routine as ex-smokers they will suffer side effects of low blood sugar. It is not that there is something wrong with them now, they were abnormal before for all practical purposes.

This doesn't mean they should eat more food, but it may mean they need to redistribute the food eaten to a more spread out pattern so they are getting blood sugar doses throughout the day as nature really had always intended.

Ingestion of Nicotine caused our bodies to release adrenaline since it is a central nervous system stimulant, as mentioned in this and other articles by both Joel and John. Lots to learn by reading these existing materials - available to all who seek the truth.

JoeJ Free - Recovered Me Two Years, Twenty Eight Days, 20 Hours and 56 Minutes ago. I've now reclaimed 65 Days and 20 Hours of my life's time, by choosing to not use of 18972 death delivery devices and accumulated $3,915.19 in the 'freedom dividend' account.

Effects of adrenaline

If blood sugar levels are frequently low and our system is regularly being asked to pump out adrenaline then our health will suffer. Adrenaline is the hormone most of us associate with stress - it is released for 'fight or flight' and its effect is very powerful. If you were threatened in the street, for example, or face any kind of physical danger your survival mechanisms would instantly step into action with the adrenal glands immediately producing large amounts of adrenaline.

The effects of adrenaline are
• heart speeds up
• arteries tighten to raise blood pressure - hence a 'beating' heart
• liver immediately releases emergency stores of glucose to give energy
• digestion stops because it is not necessary for immediate survival
• clotting ability of the blood is increased in case of injury.

This all means that you have been made ready to run faster, fight back and generally react more quickly than normal. Unfortunately, when your blood sugar level drops during the day or night, adrenaline is released automatically and the body experiences all the above sensations except that there is no outside stress to respond to. When this happens repeatedly, you can experience all the health problems outlined under the hypoglycaemia section earlier in this chapter. It can also contribute to heart disease by increasing the risk of blood clotting and higher blood pressure and the sudden release of glucose for energy can cause extreme fluctuations of sugar levels in the blood.

These fluctuations in blood sugar create an internal stress which the body then has to deal with. It causes an increase in sodium retention causing a bloated feeling from excess water. The digestive system will not function efficiently and less stomach acid will be produced which means that more food will actually be stored because it has not been digested sufficiently. The longer food stays in the intestines and remains undigested, the more calories are likely to be absorbed. It is therefore important that food is moved quickly out of the intestines.

can i just say that i don't think i would have made it through the first 72 hours without the cranbury juice - through reading about the drops in blood sugar levels i could, for the first time, regognise the effects that was having on me and what a difference the cranbury made.

thank you

jakki - Free and Healing for Sixteen Days, 21 Hours and 35 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 1 Day and 18 Hours, by avoiding the use of 507 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me £126.84.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study including diet history and interview about smoking, ethnicity, social factors and retrospectively collected data of menarche and growth. SETTING: School setting, Göteborg, Sweden.

SUBJECTS: A total of 611 boys and 634 girls in grade 9 (15-16 y).

RESULTS: The majority of the students, 65% of the boys and 52% of the girls, consumed three main meals daily. The in-between meals, however, contributed the major part of the energy intake. The energy intake was 12.93.5 MJ (means.d.) for boys and 9.02.5 MJ for girls. Irregular breakfast eating, 12% of the boys and 24% of the girls, was related to negative lifestyle factors where smoking was the strongest, odds ratio 3.8 (95% CI: 2.6-5.4) and to irregular intake of lunch and dinner. These boys and girls had a food choice including a higher percentage of energy from snack food (26% vs 20% and 19% in boys and girls respectively, all P<0.001), mostly consumed between the main meals. These groups had significantly lower intakes of micronutrients, but higher intakes of sucrose and alcohol compared to the groups with regular breakfast intake. Girls omitting breakfasts and lunches (8%) also had a less healthy food choice and the poorest nutrient intake. These girls had matured earlier, with menarche age of 12.21.1 y vs 12.91.0 y (P<0.001) in girls with regular main meal intake.

CONCLUSIONS: Meal pattern with omission of breakfast or breakfast and lunch was related to a clustering of less healthy lifestyle factors and food choice leading to a poorer nutrient intake.

SPONSORSHIP: The Swedish Medical Research Council (project B94-19X-04721-19A), the Swedish Mill Industry and the Wilhelm and Martina Lundgren Foundation.

PMID: 14647222 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PubMed Source Link

Last edited by John (Gold) on March 12th, 2009, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Department of Family Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

Cigarette smoking has been causally linked to atherosclerotic heart disease. The mechanism by which cigarette smoking causes heart disease has not, however, been determined. Nicotine has been shown to lead to increases in plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine following smoking. Catecholamines have been shown to lead to increases in blood glucose.

This paper demonstrates that cigarette smoking is associated with increases in average blood glucose as measured by glycosylated hemoglobin levels in smokers compared with nonsmokers.

Fifteen nondiabetic smokers had an average glycosylated hemoglobin of 6.82% (SD = 1.06%), which is higher than the 5.63% (SD = .49%, t = 3.98, P less than .001) found for 23 nonsmokers. The average glycosylated hemoglobin level of the smokers is in the range found for patients with well-controlled diabetes.

These data suggest that elevated blood glucose may contribute to atherogenesis in cigarette smokers.

Very important information and so true. Smoking covered a lot of unsteady eating times and skipping meals definitely becomes harder on your body after a solid quit.
I not only skipped meals left and right after quitting, if I ate I went fruits only (way out of whack diet, let me tell you) and promptly worked my system into a full on gastritis.

Important to remember that life continues after quitting smoking and the body longs for energy where cigarettes previously played a trick on nature.